Potential magic falls flat

Rating: 4/10 (8 August 2010)

What could have and should have been an absolutely magical tale got all tangled up in poor casting and the inadequacies of the writer/director. I would imagine, that if this movie was pitched to me, recommended to me, what have you, I would have nothing but positive notions. The story seems lovely (and is indeed, the strongest part of the movie), the characters, for the most part, wonderful creations, the setting and the theme and the music, all stellar. The delivery is lacking. Our narrator, Max, responsible for relaying the plot to us, the gentle audience, is supposed to be a likable creation, a chubby, cheerful, New Orleans jazz trumpeter. Instead, he's your drunk math teacher who talked to loud, or the uncle that smells and asks awkward questions and stares too long at your chest. At best, he's a Blues Brother...hardly a compliment in this case, for The Legend of 1900 is hardly a comedy, and Max isn't supposed to be a caricature. And so, this beautiful plot, the story of 1900 gets choked out through Max's double chin, and the beauty and poetry of the story on the boat is rudely interrupted by his spittle flying tirades and cheap Yankee colloquialisms. Further bashing 1900's face into the grit and the gravel is Tornatore's inability to convey to us the genius of 1900's music. Instead of any real emotion, he relies on slapstick dropped cigars and knocked off wigs to show us that the audience is impressed. Instead of allowing great music to speak for itself, he hammers it into our skull with flying sweat and notes so fast they could hardly be played by two hands...OH MY GOODNESS, LOOK AT THOSE EFFECTS, IT LOOKS LIKE 1900 HAS FOUR HANDS! It's as though he expects us to have no appreciation of music, no ear to hear what is beautiful without blatantly spelling out, letter by letter, just how may keys per second this man can play. Tim Roth shines, however. He too, it would seem, saw the magic and beauty of the story before it was spewed out by Tornatore. He is 1900. a complex and mildly insane character with a strong back story and a magnetic presence. His face and hands say far more than Tornatore's sorry words, that often work to disrupt the character's existence and hinder Roth's performance. But any ache in my heart at the end was due to Roth's skill and believability in this role, and his full assumption of the well-crafted character.